It is known to use delegating or cascading processing in medical systems, such as a dialysis system. The trend has been to use faster, more powerful processors, which can handle an increasing number of software related tasks. One drawback of faster processing is increased cost. Another drawback of faster processing is increased electromagnetic interference (“EMI”), which is particularly important in a medical environment.
Another consideration in distributed processing is the physical configuration of the medical machine. For example, a machine having a single housing for all components does not have cabling constraints. A machine having multiple components or discrete subassemblies, however, presents cabling issues. It is desirable to minimize electrical connections for ease of use and reliability.
There is, accordingly, a need to provide an effective, low cost, low EMI distributed processing system, and in particular, one that can mitigate the number of wire connections made between different discrete components of a medical machine or system.